War of the Sun Valley

The war was started when an army from the Kingdom of Dakar entered the fertile northwestern valleys held by the Republic of Irill in 448 AH. No peace accord between the belligerent nations has been signed, but the last Irillian military unit withdrew across the Illthande River in 459.

The Irillians have a line of forts along the southern shore of the Illthande River making a river crossing nearly impossible for the Dakarians. The Dakarians lack a strong enough navy to land soldiers along the banks of the Caragan Sea. Most of the Krandryian clans along the southern highlands are more favorably aligned with the Irillians making a repeat of their initial advancements nearly impossible.

Queen Aurora I has not yet set aside lands for her prominent nobles inside the valley, but is under increasing pressure. Instead she has claimed all of the lands as Crown Land, compensating her nobles with treasure instead of the more highly coveted land.

• Date: 448 - 460 AH (no peace accord)
• Location: Valley of the Sun, Irillian Republic
• Result:

  • Control of the fertile valley passed to the Kingdom of Dakar as Crown Land
  • Accepted as first hints Dakarian Civil War
• Belligerents:

  • Kingdom of Dakar
  • Republic of Irill
• Commanders and leaders:

A Dakarian army consisting of knights, militia, and the Order of White crossed the Heule River outside of Bildein. Using their superior mobility they quickly isolated the port city of Mouriai and after a brief siege conquered it. The resupply of the army by sea was brief as the Irillian navy blockaded the port, which was only broken at great cost in 457 AH.

In 457 the Dakarian army was again on the offensive and with the help of a raid by Krandryia behind the Irillian lines they were able to break out of Mouriai. The Irillian legions fell back to hastily built fortifications, but by 459 they were forced to withdraw to the southern shore of the Illthande River. The Dakarians have constructed their own forts along the north shore, but with the exception of small raids neither side has attempted to cross the river in force.

The initial attack across the Heule River into the valley came as a complete surprise to the Irillian towns and and keeps along the river. Under King Reiner IV relations between the nations vastly improved with Dakar accounting for the majority of the trade with Irill. The coronation of his daughter as Queen just a few years prior seemed to indicate a continuation of those policies.

Instead a Dakarian army led by Thomas Arentz, Earl of Innerberg and Lord Gregor Thumann; accompanied knights of the Order of White led by Sir Helmut the Green forced a crossing of the Heule outside of the town of Bildein. The first two years comprised of lighting strikes by the far more mobile Dakarian army as the Irillian Legions were forced to give ground and fall back to more fortified positions.

The Dakarian army was strung out along a southwest to northeast line as the forested highlands were ill-suited to their strongest force (heavy calvary) and the Irillians had long-standing fortifications outside of Mouriai. The Irillian navy had bottled up the smaller Dakarian navy at the mouth of the Zun River, ensuring the city could not fall by naval attack.

The capture of the port city of Mouriai in 453 was the most significant event after the initial attack and possibly the entire war. There were two major events that allowed the Dakarian army to take Mouriai in a relatively quick siege.

The first was nearly suicidal attack by the Dakarian navy on the Irillian fleet blockading the Zun River. Although the Dakarian's suffered far more losses in terms of both sailors and ships, the Irillian navy could not longer afford to blockade the Zun and still maintain a strong presence in the rest of the Caragan Sea. The second was the surprise attack by Krandryian raiders behind the Irillian lines. Irillian commanders did not expect anything beyond small raids as so much trade flowed from Irill into Krandryia, so the attack came as a complete surprise.

Both events were successful from the perspective of the Irillian military, but together they drew so much strength away from Mouriai that its fall was inevitable. While the legions were dealing with the Kands the Dakarians attacked Mouriai under the commands of Helmut and led by his White Knights. It was direct and resulted in terrible losses among the militia and footmen of the Western Lords, but before the winter of 452 they controlled everything except the port and the keep supporting it.

The Irillian navy evacuated the remaining soldiers in early summer of 453 giving the Dakarians full control of the city. The hoped for resupply of the Dakarian army failed to happen as their remaining navy lacked the strength to break the Irillian blockade. Instead the army had to wait for the long overland supply before they could once again go on the offensive.

The arrival of large numbers of footmen and mercenaries from the Western Lords in 455 marked the beginning of the Dakarian break-out of Mouriai. The Irillian Legions had command of the southern ridge but internal politics slowed the arrival of additional legions.

Just as important was the effect a Dakarian raiders and pirates had on the Irillians. Piracy on the Caragan Sea rose as the Irillian navy used their ships to blockade Mouriai. An attack by a few Dakarian warships and fireboats from the harbor caused enough casualties that rendered the blockade ineffective. Several Irillian ships still remained, but they could not longer stop every vessel heading for the port. These remaining ships would be withdrawn in 458.

In the high summer of 456 the Dakarian calvary stuck out east, while the footmen attacked up the ridge. The legions held the high ground, but were forced to fall back as the calvary threatened their flank. Unlike the northern ridges, those in the south were flat and wide making it far easier for Dakarian heavy calvary to move. There were several sharp battles and each side suffered casualties, but the lack of new legions in the region meant that in 459 the legions were forced to withdraw across the Illthande River.

Relations between Dakar and Irill have never recovered, in addition the amount of trade flowing between Irill and Kandryia has been reduced by half. While Dakarian merchants have taken over some of the trade it is still not equal to the level Kandryia enjoyed before the war. This has led to strained relations between Dakar and Kandryia.

Irill has not suffered much; although the loss of the fertile valley and its soldiers is not insignificant. The trade that flows between Turan, Irill, the Three Kingdoms, Selcaria, and the Free Cities remain as strong as ever. Dakar now has a major port city on the Caragan Sea, but it will take years for their level of trade to ever impact Irillian coffers.

The most problematic domestic situation in Dakar is the strained relations between the Western Lords and nobles in the eastern part of Dakar. The Western Lords were required to supply wealth, militia, and mercenaries to a war for which they gained little. In return the losses among the militia and footmen were heavy as Lord Arentz used them to break up the disciplined lines of the legion so that his knights could break through their lines. There were many instances where the knights charged through their own lines running over any of their own men still locked in battle.

While the Western Lords suffered much in the loss of gold, it was the loss of men that became problematic. The estates of these lords may be smaller, but most of it has not yet been cleared and they still live under constant threat from orc and goblin raiders. In addition banditry is far more prevalent in the frontier west than the most settled east.

Most scholars agree it was the aftermath of this war that pushed the Western Lords into open rebellion.